The first time I heard the Faces song "Ooh La La" it was on Rod Stewart's 1998 album When We Were the New Boys. I remember reading the liner notes, an interview with Rod (I think), and the writer was asking Rod how it felt to cover the Faces after so many years. I had no idea who the Faces were at that point, so I figured it was just an influential band Rod knew of.
Several years later, I finally watched Rushmore, the Wes Anderson film (his second, I believe, after Bottle Rocket). The concluding song is "Ooh La La," but in this version the singer was not Rod Stewart. I did some research and found out that the Faces, who performed the original, were a British rock group that lasted from 1969 to 1975. And, lo and behold, around that time that I was watching Rushmore, the Faces were coming out with a brand new box set, described by allmusic.com as such: "There has never been a better box set than the Faces' Five Guys Walk into a Bar.... There has never been a box [set] that captures an artist so perfectly, nor has a box set taken greater advantage of unreleased and rare material, to the point where it seems as essential and vital as the released recordings. Simply put, there's never been a box set as necessary as this, since it tells the band's entire tale and explains exactly what the fuss is all about."
So, in December of 2004, I requested this box set for Christmas, and it was duly given. Beautifully packaged, the case is the shape of a book, with a nice, matte-like finish to the cover. The discs sit inside, two to a page, overlapping, to keep the size of the case small, and not long, like most four-disc box sets, which are unable to fit on some shelves. After many a listen, I had to agree with allmusic.com. The Faces were amazing. But they weren't amazing because they made the best music of their time, or because they were the best in their genre, or anything above average like that. They were amazing because they wrote and played music that they wanted to hear: straight, three-minute guitar rockers (Too Bad), seven-minute plus electric washouts (Around the Plynth/Gasoline Alley), head-bobbing afternoon-drive piano lilts (Glad and Sorry), and stunning, emotional covers (Maybe I'm Amazed). The Faces made music because it was fun and it sounded good. That's it. A single-disc greatest hits collection from 1999, Good Boys... When They're Asleep, hints at their lovable, tousle-haired nature. The liner notes to the box set are extensive and intimate, with photos from recording sessions and performances, and discussions of the bars the band would set up on stage, to keep the beer and liquor flowing during shows. They were a band that, as Lester Bangs might say (at least from his rant in the beginning of Almost Famous), "had the courage to be drunken buffoons, which makes them poetic."
So "Ooh La La." The recorded version, the Faces version, sounds so strange to me, and was significant as a cover for Rod, because it was sung by Ron Wood, the guitarist who, in 1976, would join the Rolling Stones (a post he continues to fill today). The liner notes to the box set declare that Ronnie Lane, the bassist and sometimes singer/songwriter for the Faces, was ill (or not present?) the day of that session, and Rod declared that the song was out of his vocal range. Thus, Ron Wood. Apparently, while recording, the other members of the band sat in the studio, laughing and making fun of Ron's singing. As far as I know, it is the only song Ron Wood sang on a Faces record. Yet, if you were to play an assortment of Faces songs to your average non-music personality, "Ooh La La" is probably the only track they might recognize.
Simple, opening with a soft, warm acoustic rhythm, the song is inviting, a story of a grandfather's advice to his grandson regarding men's biggest problem, women. The sing-along hook, "I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger," is neither deep nor extremely philosophical. It is a simple yearn, an honest insight into the nature of human relations and experience. Not a lamentation, only an observation. Like the Faces themselves, it is straightforward, true, and will continue to resonate as long as joy - in life, in music, in anything - is an ideal to which people hold tight.
For more on the Faces, check out these links/websites:
allmusic.com entry
Faces Official Website
wikipedia entry
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